Couldn't help myself Belgian Strong dark first taste (pic)

its only been in the bottle for 10 days, but I just couldn't help myself

i wanted to see how the carbonation is doing and its awesooooooooooooooome!!! :rockin: I was expecting nothing but it's already pretty close to full carbonation and this is an 11%abv brew.

it already taste great...already up there with chimay and st. bernardus tastewise.

im very happy with this, I can only imagine when its a year old.

http://usera.imagecave.com/jourelemode/quad first taste.JPG

Wii

Westy 12 clone huh? You have a good recipe? I think we should try to get them to try and clone it on Can You Brew It...give 'em an excuse to visit the abbey and bring some home to side-by-side. Fresh Westy 12 is up there with some of the best beer I've had...aged Westy 12 not as much.

looks very very good!

yeah what recipe, but looks amazing though

Bensiff said:

Wii

Westy 12 clone huh? You have a good recipe? I think we should try to get them to try and clone it on Can You Brew It...give 'em an excuse to visit the abbey and bring some home to side-by-side. Fresh Westy 12 is up there with some of the best beer I've had...aged Westy 12 not as much.

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I don't know how close it gets to westy as i've never tried it. But this one tastes really good. I used caramunich, biscuit, special b, chocolate, belgian pale, aromatic malt and d2 syrup in this one...

im gonna let it age for about 6 months and when I get close, ill get a westvleteren abt 12 and see how it compares, i guess we'll see how close it is then

Do you honestly think you will get to taste it in a year?

Amazing. I have an 8.7% Belgian Strong Dark brewed on 3/12/2010 that's just now showing satisfactory carbonation. It's absolutely delicious, but just now carbing up! Yours looks great.

TANSTAAFB said:

Do you honestly think you will get to taste it in a year?

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here's to hoping I got 15 of these corked in those 750ml belgian bottles and I plan on cellaring those, and I got about 17 in the little belgian bottles left. I still got some of my dubbel and I'm gonna make a CDA next week so I think it might be possible.

Pilgarlic said:

Amazing. I have an 8.7% Belgian Strong Dark brewed on 3/12/2010 that's just now showing satisfactory carbonation. It's absolutely delicious, but just now carbing up! Yours looks great.

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yeah, i was expecting nothing...but that's what I got. I wonder how the carbonation thing really works...cause this is almost fully carb'd already. why is it that mine carb'd up sooo fast, they're sitting at 70*F right now. I even brought this brew up to around 84*F when fermenting. That should have gotten rid of a lot of the CO2 within the beer.

jourelemode said:

here's to hoping I got 15 of these corked in those 750ml belgian bottles and I plan on cellaring those, and I got about 17 in the little belgian bottles left. I still got some of my dubbel and I'm gonna make a CDA next week so I think it might be possible.

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You obviously have more self restraint than I!!! I have 10 12oz and a few 22oz bombers of my CDA left and its only been two and a half months

I am a huge fan of Belgians but have been focusing on dialing in my AG techniques before tackling one. I have the pipeline full now and am ready to try a big beer. Do you have any suggestions/ recommendations/ advice from your experiences?

That looks soooo yummy, CONGRATS!

So did you invent this recipe or did you get it from somewhere? I saw that you posted the grain bill but could you post the recipe and the procedure?

donjonson said:

So did you invent this recipe or did you get it from somewhere? I saw that you posted the grain bill but could you post the recipe and the procedure?

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alright, ill post it up when I get the chance

TANSTAAFB said:

You obviously have more self restraint than I!!! I have 10 12oz and a few 22oz bombers of my CDA left and its only been two and a half months

I am a huge fan of Belgians but have been focusing on dialing in my AG techniques before tackling one. I have the pipeline full now and am ready to try a big beer. Do you have any suggestions/ recommendations/ advice from your experiences?

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im a newb myself man...I'm gonna do my first all grain next week, which is gonna be my CDA. Then i'm planning on doing another all grain of the pliny clone that I got from this forum. and from that point, i'm gonna try to replicate the CDA and the Pliny again so I can check if my methods and techniques are consistent. We'll see...its all experimentation, good luck to all of us lol...just take really good notes and measurements i suppose.

i just popped open another one, but in a different style bottle, its an 11.2 oz just like the one in the picture but this one has no head at all...shouldn't the carbonation be the same no matter what bottle it is?

Happens to me all the time, especially when I am "sampling" early

Some will be perfectly carbed, with a perfect head, some will be flat as a kansas corn field. Just be patient, they will catch up. I have learned from experience that while the early samples taste great, if I drink too many I am very disappointed that I am running low when it finally comes into its own!